After 25 years, The WaterFront Center in Oyster Bay has expanded its reach to serve 10,000 per year through various educational programs, activities and events.
“Our mission statement is to connect people to the water through education and recreation,” said George Ellis, the center’s executive director. Ellis has been involved with the organization for the past nine years and has been in his role for the past five.
He said the center offers “access to the water” in a different way than many people are used to, exploring the region’s native marine life and history.
“We’re definitely committed to accessibility. The WaterFront Center provides affordable and free programming, and we are fostering environmental stewardship and community engagement,” said Jamé Krauter, director of marketing and engagement at the center, who has been with the center for three years.
Krauter said the Waterfront Center is currently housed in the former Jacobson Shipyard. She said 25 years ago, the center came into existence after local organizations, like the Friends of the Bay, expressed the desire for a nonprofit to utilize the space.
Ellis said the center reaches 150 schools a year, connecting students to the water. He said that despite living near the water, many students do not have much experience with marine life. While students are out on the boats, they drudge up clams, oysters, horseshoe crabs, and, sometimes, even seahorses.
“For them to have an experiential opportunity to find, touch, feel, learn about these marine creatures is a really wonderful thing,” Ellis said.
But the center doesn’t only educate the youth, Ellis said. It also visits senior centers, bringing portable touch tanks with different marine animals.
Krauter said there are activities like paddle boarding, kayaking and sailing, in addition to marine education programs and harbour tours. Ellis said the center offers free sailing for the disabled and veterans, a “therapeutic activity” that many enjoy.
“Our impact really is here to help with education, recreation, conservation, and to help continue our story of our local, maritime history and environmental education,” Krauter said.
The WaterFront Center is home to two ships—the Christeen and the Ida May— that are used for educational tours and public and private sailing.
The Christeen is a 183-year-old oyster sloop which first set sail at the center in 1999. The center said Christeen is the oldest oyster sloop in the country and is a national historic landmark. Kraufer said when patrons set sail on the “historic vessel” they get a unique perspective in the experience, raising the sails themselves before taking off.
“It’s one of those kinds of journeys that you take and you’re never gonna forget,” she said.
The Ida May is a more recent addition to the center, launched from the docks in 2023. The historic oyster dredge, the center said, was built and operated by Frank M. Flowers Oyster Company from 1925 to 2003.
The Ida May, named after the builder’s wife, was donated to the WaterFront Center with the intention of restoration, but Ellis said it was “too far gone for a proper restoration.” Instead, a group of shipwrights and volunteers. He said it was a “real community project.”
Kraufer said the vessels can be used as “floating classrooms,” which offer “hands-on learning about the area’s maritime heritage.”
Although the center is based in Oyster Bay, its reach doesn’t stop there. Krauter said the center’s 10,000 annual visitors come from all over the region to participate in its offerings. She said the center has expanded its reach and has begun to see more and more visitors from the city.
“We do service everyone from all over Long Island,” she said.
Ellis said, looking ahead, he hopes to develop more partnerships with similar organizations throughout the island, which would help expand the center’s reach even further.
“No matter what it is we do, the positive effect is there throughout,” Ellis said.
